Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Suicide in the spur of the moment

A man commits
suicide in Coimbatore (India) because his girlfriend refused to go with him to
watch a movie. And a woman commits suicide because her husband refused to take
her to a movie.

Agony, anger, betrayal, distrust, hopelessness overwhelmed both the weak
hearted persons and in the “spur of the moment” they took a devastating
decision of ending their lives.

Has insanity
taken precedence over rationality that people have no hesitation in committing
the most heinous crime upon themselves?

A desire to live
life on one’s own terms, expecting people around to accept their way of living,
never compromising attitude and carrying tonnes of emotions on the sleeves are
some of the attributes which characterise people today. The end result is never
a pleasant one because in this world we will never always get what we want.

Life is not just
about eating, drinking and movie watching. Life has much deeper meaning which
most people today aren’t aware of because it is neither taught in schools and
colleges and nor people seriously want to learn about it. People give great
importance to momentary pleasures and if they find any interruption or obstacle
in their pursuit for self-indulgence then they become agitated internally and
externally. Most of us spend all our time, energy and effort in taking care of
our externals such as accumulating wealth, planning for career etc. and we
spend very negligible time in attending the needs of our inner self. But it’s a
grave mistake because if our inner foundation is weak then we can crumble at
the slightest whiff of any adversity.

However if we
equip ourselves with the knowledge of who we are and what is the purpose of
this human form of life then we would in fact shudder at the thought of doing anything
whimsically. A child may put his hand in the fire because he may not know that
it will burn its hand. Similarly an ignorant man can waste life but as soon he
understands the importance of human form of life then he will desist from
committing any harm to himself or to others. Human life is very precious
because as humans we have the opportunity to do ultimate good to self and to
the entire humanity. Importance of human life is exhorted in Vedas and so
Vedanta sutra exhorts to all: Inquire about the absolute truth (athato brahma
jijnasa). In fact life is to know about soul (us), Supersoul (the Supreme God)
and to understand how to re-establish our relationship with the Supreme Lord.
If we can develop relationship with God then we can easily confront all the
difficulties just like Arjuna who after taking the guidance of Krishna was
easily able to subdue all his weaknesses and negative emotions.

Meaningful
messages of Vedic literatures will equip us with sufficient knowledge which
will prevent us from giving in to our lower self and taking any irrational
decisions in our life.

For example a
person will not even think of committing suicide if he understands that soul
being eternal can never be killed. When one commits suicide then one does not
kill oneself but just destroys ones temporary material body which anyway is going to
perish oneday. And suicide
being a sinful activity a person who commits suicide will have to suffer its
reactions in the next life. If a person believes that by committing suicide all
his sufferings will vanish then this is not going to happen. In fact by doing this crime he is just
perpetuating hiswoes. In
fact one should try ones best to break the vicious cycle of suffering forever.
Vedic books like Bhagavad Gita elaborately
explain how to stop all the sufferings. Krishna says in Gita 18.66 that if we
take his shelter then he will deliver us from all sinful reactions. And he has
also given us the option to eternally get rid of all the difficulties and
dangers by returning back to his
abode i.e. the spiritual world. (Bhagavad Gita 15.6)

Having got a
human form of life we have the opportunity to return to our eternal homewhich is full of bliss. And for this we just
need to think rationally, introspect intelligently and develop a desire do find
a lasting solution to all our problems.

So, each and every moment of life should be utilized for self realization
and not for wasting it in the spur of the moment.

Published in Iskcon News: http://iskconnews.org/suicide-in-the-spur-of-the-moment,4900/